A Study Of The Thematic Conceptual Metaphor In John Updike's "Rabbit Tetralogy"

John Updike(1932-2009)is a renowned contemporary American writer who has won 12 different kinds of prizes,including two Pulitzer Prizes,two National Book Awards and the O'Henry Award.Among his works,the most famous is his "Rabbit Tetralogy",which consists of Rabbit,Run(1960),Rabbit Redux(1971),Rabbit Is Rich(1981)and Rabbit at Rest(1990).This series of novels tells about the pragmatist Rabbit Angstrom's short life from 26 years old to 56 years old.On the basis of existing researches on John Updike and his "Rabbit Tetralogy" at home and abroad,this paper employs Lakoff and Johnson's theory about Conceptual Metaphor to discuss the thematic conceptual metaphors in "Rabbit Tetralogy".Conceptual analyses are mainly made in terms of images and narrative structures so as to reveal their mapping process from the source domain to the target domain.Firstly,three images are selected,namely,the basketball,the car and the road.Their metaphorical meanings are examined respectively from the perspective of Rabbit himself,his wife Janice and their son Nelson.A cognitive analysis of the text shows that features of the Basketball(source domain)are partly mapped onto Glory,Love and Death(target domain),and similarly,those of the Car(source domain)on Freedom,Success and Anger(target domain),and those of the Road(source domain)on Vagabondage,Metamorphosis and Self-Redemption(target domain).Such discussion of the above conceptual metaphors reveals the change of the values of the American middle class in almost half a century.Then,"Rabbit Tetralogy" employs three kinds of narrative structure,including the temporal,the spatial and the "sandwich" structure.In terms of the temporal structure,each of the four novels is ten years apart from its follower,and all together,they depict Rabbit's life from the 1950s to the 1980s.In terms of spatial structure,the situation varies in accordance with the characters' residences.And taken as a whole,the first of the series Rabbit,Run begins with Rabbit playing basketball and feeling very well,and the last one Rabbit at Rest ends again with Rabbit playing basketball,but this time causing a heart attack and ultimately his death.In this way,the structure is like a "sandwich",which also includes the temporal and the spatial structures,thus suggesting the individual person's limitedness.To conclude,in "Rabbit Tetralogy",from the perspective of the everyday life of Rabbit's family,John Updike portrays a historical picture showing the rise and decline of the American middle class.In this picture,images that are closely related to the theme become important conceptual metaphors and embody rich and deep meanings.Working together with the temporal,spatial,and especially the "sandwich" structures,they clearly reflect the limitedness and limitations that the individual person or family shows when caught in the social and historical changes.